日本住血吸虫症の予防対策の重点事項は予防対策教育の推進や疾病治療に関するものである.予防対策プログラムとしては,機構上からも系統的かつ恒久性のある保健教育プログラムが必須とされ,その計画設立に当ってはこの疾病に関する保健・予防対策に熟知の専門家を配する必要があり,かつ,その教育プログラムは住民に受け入れられ易いように作成する事が肝要である.本研究論文には(1)日本住血吸虫症の原因・伝播(媒介)・予防対策などに関する住民の知識調査報告, (2)レイテ島で現在実施されている予防対策プログラムの動向やこれに関わる統計データーの報告, (3)教育プログラムで特に強調さるべき重点事項や(4)日本住血吸虫症の予防対策の教育プログラムの企画に関する基本指針などの詳細が報告されており,当「熱帯医学」雑誌編集委員会で推薦論文として紹介されたものである. / This investigation was performed to obtain information on the health knowledge, attitudes and practices related to schistosomiasis due to S. japonicum in Leyte. The province in northeastern Leyte selected as a target endemic area contains 22 municipalities and a total population of about a half million people, and the estimated number of persons infected with schistosomiasis is 87,000 or an average infection rate of 18%. In addition to all the household heads or their espouses from the 16 sample villages, the municipal officials and the teachers from the 4 municipalities were interviewed. The total respondents consisted of 1,935 household heads or espouses, 172 teachers and 49 municipal officials. The study reveaed that majority of the people of Leyte were knowledgeable about their community health problems and were aware that the degree of awareness about schistosomiasis was positively related to the prevalence rate of the disease in the village, i. e. the higher the prevalence the greater the awareness about disease. The municipal officials on the other hand, were more knowledgeable about the disease and had wider range of knowledge about other community health problems. They ranked schistosomiasis as the first of public health problems. The teachers were the most knowledgeable of the three categories of respondents. From these results of epidemioogical investigation, the author insists as follows; the schistosomiasis educational programme should concentrate on the formal and the non-formal education of youths. And the educational programme also should go hand in hand with other community development programmes such as those of the Ministry of Social Service and Development, Ministry of Education, Culture, Agriculture and Public Works, National Irrigation Authority and others. Further, the educational programme should run parallel with other programmes aimed at improving the economic and educational status of the population as it can not stand in isolation. In the conclusion, it is important that the linkages with other agencies should be strengthened and sustained not only for the educational component of the schistosomiasis control programme but also for the initiation of other programmes designed to uplift the socioeconomic status of the population.